In November, 1993, Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., introduced what was considered to be one of the main Republican health overhaul proposals: “A bill to provide comprehensive reform of the health care system of the United States.”

Titled the “Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993,” it had 21 co-sponsors, including two Democrats (Sens. Boren and Kerrey). The bill, which was not debated or voted upon, was an alternative to President Bill Clinton’s plan. It bears similarity to the Democratic bill passed by the Senate Dec. 24, 2009, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The 1993 HEART ACT was the Republican answer to Hillary's Single-Payer. The Republicans are just pissed that a black guy took their idea and made it happen.

Those less educated Republican voters are too damn stupid to know this FACT. Democrats voting for Trump get what they deserve.

Lets see, part of the R play to replace ACA is Tax Credits, pretty good idea. But wait a minute, what about those who pay no taxes? You know those making less than poverty level. Is it not pay no taxes get no tax credits? Thus no Insurance under the republican plan. Or am I just blowing smoke and double jointed?

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Vote 2018

Life is like a PB&J sandwichThe older you get, the moldery and crustier you get.

Bernie points out that a central theme of Trump was not to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. ObamaCare is the expansion of medicare.

Bernie's money quote:

Quote:

Millions of people voted for him on the belief that he would keep his word […]

If he was sincere, then I would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time and all of our time. And for Mr. Trump to tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid or that cuts Social Security.

Well, he said a lot of stuff. Basically anything he needed to get elected. He considers anything he said to be negotiable until a contract is signed, and even then might change his mind..

Then Trump is about to learn that the American people will hold him accountable for what is said on the campaign trail.

As an aside, I'm really impressed that the American populace lit up Congress' switchboard when it was learned that the Repubs wanted to get rid of the independent ethics office. I think we'll see more of that - American voicing their concerns under Trump.

Exactly and that was a GOP Rep who asked the question. Clearly R's are not listening to their constituents.

But wait! There's more!!

Turns out that Kaiser Permanente did six focus groups of Trump supporters only and it turns out that they like ObamaCare - but just not the first three syllables of what it's called:

Quote:

Though the participants did not agree on everything, they expressed remarkably similar opinions on many health care questions. They were not, by and large, angry about their health care; they were simply afraid they will be unable to afford coverage for themselves and their families. They trusted Mr. Trump to do the right thing but were quick to say that they didn’t really know what he would do, and were worried about what would come next.

The money quote:

Quote:

{These focus groups] expressed animosity for drug and insurance companies, and sounded as much like Bernie Sanders supporters as Trump voters.

No, no there is not. I expect Congress to steamroll right through this one and repeal without any plans for replacement. But they will push it off two to four years because they are cowards and don't want to face the immediate wrath it would incur. They will take it away little by little and voters will forget they ever had it and will forget that Republicans took it away from them.

I expect Congress to steamroll right through this one and repeal without any plans for replacement. But they will push it off two to four years because they are cowards and don't want to face the immediate wrath it would incur. They will take it away little by little and voters will forget they ever had it and will forget that Republicans took it away from them.

There already is a proven Republican healthcare access plan. It was called RomneyCare and it worked pretty well in Massachusetts until ACA superseded it. And it has the BIG advantage of being named after a Republican. It has all the features Trump said he would keep, so he would probably sign a federal RomneyCare bill.

Of course it IS almost identical to ACA, since plans that work need certain features. Both ACA and RomneyCare had all of those features, but RomneyCare had a larger penalty for people who went without insurance. (Which is actually very Republican because it's "individual responsibility".) Probably an improvement!

When you bother to think about it, all of those people who complained about the mandate penalty are people who want the government to supply them with health care for free. In other words, welfare leaches.

All Republicans need to do is jump on this in a big way, repeal and replace (with essentially the same thing), and their biggest problem goes away. They don't have to worry about midterm elections or 20 million people marching to Washington to string them up.

Some won't get the point until it actually goes to the gavel.I'm still hearing people tell me that I am worried about nothing, and too paranoid, and "they would NEVER take away Karen's health care" and "they would NEVER EVER take away your son's health care!"

Sadly, this willing disbelief is exactly how corrupt tyrants manage to get away with committing the most horrific atrocities in history.The public is conditioned to think "NO one would EVER do such a thing!!!"But they WOULD, they CAN, and they WILL.And time and time again, the same people are in shock when they realize the extent to which they've been lied to and damaged.And time and time again the same people DISMISS the ones who see it coming EARLY as paranoids and cassandras.

And once it's gone, it's not coming back either, not in my lifetime, not in my wife's lifetime and not in my children's lifetime. We will have to hit rock bottom first.

The measure allows the GOP to pass final legislation in the Senate with a 51-vote simple majority instead of the 60 votes required for most legislation.

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"He wakes up in the morning, ****s all over Twitter, ****s all over us, ****s all over his staff, then hits golf balls."---Congressman Peter King

when conservatives first proposed the R&R procedure, they were asked what their replacement was ... invariably it was silence until pressed it became the states would implement programs

i heard Sen Ron Johnson talk about the replacement plan and he finally admitted it included the states doing something.

First I still am not clear how buying insurance across state lines would lower premiums i.e. premiums are dependent on health care payouts which are determined by healthcare cost drivers which will continually rise ergo the cost of insurance will increase but conservative believe in a different math than I know.

Second they consistently mention the states as implementing some plan with the help of the federal government. The problem is not all states have evolved economically equal. Many of the states which need it most can not afford to fund a plan.

My conclusion is they have no plan which can actually replace current plans. They have no plan which addresses the fundamental reason for ACA i.e. bending the impact of future federal budgetary healthcare costs. Simply moving new plans off the books does not do the trick.

It does not look good

_________________________ignorance is the enemywithout equality there is no liberty

By the time it's dismantled, the bastards who did this will lie and lie and lie again about how this is the Democrat's fault. And their cognitively challenged base will believe them.You can count on that. Look, they have spent BILLIONS on crafting the most incredible and efficient LIE machine the universe has ever known. People had better face the fact that, when that much money is spent to craft giant LIES, you can expect that someone is going to get their money's worth.

That is why I have now arrived at the conclusion that the time for talking to these people is long over. No more talking.They wanted their civil war, I believe that is our only option at this point. And this side doesn't have to do a thing.They WILL initiate it by attacking whatever is thriving without their approval. That means Jews, hispanics, black people, non-Christians of any type, immigrants, LGBTQ, liberals, eggheads (intellectuals) Muslims, anyone or anything that does not fit into their narrow criteria.The problem is, the overwhelming majority in ALL these groups still believe that they can "talk sense" or petition, or protest and that somehow results will happen.

I am so tired of seeing every single one of my predictions come to pass and I am NOT SOME GENIUS or SOME GURU. These aren't "MY" predictions at all, they are just tea leaves that anyone can read if they are not afraid of what they are going to see.These people are PROUD of declaring open warfare, it is all they ever talk about, for God's sake, when are the rest of us going to pay attention?

Know WHY the State of Texas ALLOWED Enron to attack California's energy grid?Because in the eyes of the arch right wingers, California wasn't conservative enough despite being run by a conservative governor and having a conservative supermajority in both state houses.Texas wanted to allow Enron to teach them a lesson, and Texas stood to gain from taking California down.Sorry folks but that IS an act of war.Expect more and expect these things to be worse and more naked.

If Enron had tried to pull that stunt on the District of Columbia, does anyone think that the Federal Government wouldn't have stomped the living s*** out of them?

Our "liberal" governor, Mr. Brown, is actually being quite conservative where the budget is concerned, because in a 2.5 trillion dollar state economy he is worried that we are now 1.6 billion in the RED again, after two years in the black.

All that having been said, Governor Moonbeam ALSO DID SAY in several speeches, that he intends to make California the LINE IN THE SAND AGAINST Trump's America, and to that end we MIGHT just see initiatives pass which transform California into a single payer state.

I truly believe California has a large enough population to pull off becoming a single payer state.And it is in Governor Moonbeam's best interests to come up with bold action and cutting edge solutions because it guarantees reelection, for him and for all those "wonderful" Democrats. (yes I said it in quotes this time haha)

It also makes California not ONLY a thorn in Trump's side but if we work to make it succeed, it makes California become a poison pill to ALL right wingers everywhere on the entire planet.California has the unique opportunity to demonstrate that proper liberal ideas, applied in a common sense manner, can outperform any and ALL right wing demagoguery.What politician doesn't want the chance to do something like that?

But we shouldn't fool ourselves, the Right, in collusion with all the Red States, is going to work overtime on worse acts of war (NOT putting that in QUOTES! AT ALL!) to try and take down California.

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"He wakes up in the morning, ****s all over Twitter, ****s all over us, ****s all over his staff, then hits golf balls."---Congressman Peter King

It is because they believe their own bull-sh!te SO FERVENTLY that they have convinced themselves that we are SO EVIL that they MUST hurt us in order to be "victorious" in all those WARS they keep dreaming of, all those WARS that they preach about in their fanatical fundamentalist churches, all those WARS that they talk about declaring a war on (war on terror, war on drugs, war on crime, war on debt, war on entitlements, war on pornography, war on liberalism, war on atheism, war on humanism, war on Muslims, war on free and critical thinking, war on this, war on that, war on the other thing, etc.)

Where else DOES a mind like that GO after a CENTURY of thinking like this except MORE WAR? Someone tell me, please.

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"He wakes up in the morning, ****s all over Twitter, ****s all over us, ****s all over his staff, then hits golf balls."---Congressman Peter King

They can replace ACA with federal RomneyCare and Trump would sign the bill on Jan 20th. All their problems with this issue would evaporate. RomneyCare has all the features Trump wants to keep and those 20 million people would stay covered. And it would be named after a Republican so they might just try to make it work.

Or California can just go it alone, replace the federal tax cuts with state income tax increases and keep the state insurance laws that we all love. They could even let idiots buy crappy policies from out-of-state, since that would very quickly be shown to be ineffective. After all, we are 1/5 the population of the US.

They can replace ACA with federal RomneyCare and Trump would sign the bill on Jan 20th. All their problems with this issue would evaporate. RomneyCare has all the features Trump wants to keep and those 20 million people would stay covered. And it would be named after a Republican so they might just try to make it work.

Or California can just go it alone, replace the federal tax cuts with state income tax increases and keep the state insurance laws that we all love. They could even let idiots buy crappy policies from out-of-state, since that would very quickly be shown to be ineffective. After all, we are 1/5 the population of the US.

California is not only one-fifth the population, it is the 6th largest economy on the planet with a 2.5 trillion dollar GDP.And this is the first year since Governor Moonbeam took the reins that we have recorded a deficit, a measly 1.5 billion dollars, which is a far cry from the record deficits we racked up with the 30+ year Republican supermajority.

We were in the black for about three years and I suspect we might get back there again.

California can go SINGLE PAYER, I guarantee it.It could go single payer with half its brain tied behind its back.

I'm sick of groveling to a hostile foreign nation named "AmurriKKKa" that wants me and my family dead. I do not see one thing about this AmurriKKKa that looks like the country I grew up in, so as far as I am concerned Yellowstone can blow for all I care.I hope and pray I can help all the dear friends and loved ones that I care about who live in that foreign country but in the end it is their decision and I have to save my own hide first.

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"He wakes up in the morning, ****s all over Twitter, ****s all over us, ****s all over his staff, then hits golf balls."---Congressman Peter King

It would be really funny if Republicans did their repeal-and-never-replace thang and then California installed RomneyCare word-for-word, just like the Massachusetts program. (ACA is almost identical.) But we should keep the name RomneyCare just to screw with them.

The most important thing to remember, in discussing the ACA, is it isn't just the 20 million Americans who got insurance through the exchanges that will be cruelly affected. It's the millions and millions and millions of the rest of us, who were finally able to rest easy knowing that we had adequate coverage, no more lifetime cap, free preventative care, no more being booted off for pre-existing conditions, the godsend, absolute godsend, of being able to cover our young adult children up to age 26, mental health care parity, and the knowledge that if our kids needed health care past 26 that they could get subsidized health care as well. It's horrific. It will affect millions and millions and millions of us. All out of the shittiest kind of spite and racism, just to deny the black man his legacy. It is heartbreaking. It is shameful. It is unAmerican.

Know WHY the State of Texas ALLOWED Enron to attack California's energy grid?Because in the eyes of the arch right wingers, California wasn't conservative enough despite being run by a conservative governor and having a conservative supermajority in both state houses.Texas wanted to allow Enron to teach them a lesson, and Texas stood to gain from taking California down.

Actually it was DICK Cheney's Energy Commission that took aim at Cali's grid as payback for not voting for W. You know that Energy Commission that dead Scalia's SCOTUS ruled We The People™ had no business knowing what was discussed?

Know WHY the State of Texas ALLOWED Enron to attack California's energy grid?Because in the eyes of the arch right wingers, California wasn't conservative enough despite being run by a conservative governor and having a conservative supermajority in both state houses.Texas wanted to allow Enron to teach them a lesson, and Texas stood to gain from taking California down.

Actually it was DICK Cheney's Energy Commission that took aim at Cali's grid as payback for not voting for W. You know that Energy Commission that dead Scalia's SCOTUS ruled We The People™ had no business knowing what was discussed?

Yes, you're right, it was that.Rick, I know Cheney is not technically "from" Texas but when Dick Cheney speaks, Texas listens.

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"He wakes up in the morning, ****s all over Twitter, ****s all over us, ****s all over his staff, then hits golf balls."---Congressman Peter King

It’s repeal with no replacement and was always intended as such. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen but they will try everything in their power to make it happen. It’s astonishing.

Ryan promises reduced premiums, lower deductibles, better coverage with no one losing recently gained benefits, reduced overall total cost, with a pie in the sky for dessert. Yet somehow the fans of repeal believe all of this will be delivered. Or at least the negative consequences will not directly affect them.

I suppose if repeal does ultimately pass and we go back to the days of pre ACA, and many of the fans of repeal lose their newly gained coverage, it will be spun to be the Democrats fault. And the fans of repeal will believe that to be true. It’s just amazing how things can be spun these days--and believed by so many. But the real reason for the hatred of the ACA is that it was instituted and named after a black man. And many minorities have benefited from it..... “Ni&&er Care”, at whiteys expense.

And everyone knows that. It just cannot be stated out loud. At least by politicians.

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Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

I suppose if repeal does ultimately pass and we go back to the days of pre ACA, and many of the fans of repeal lose their newly gained coverage, it will be spun to be the Democrats fault. And the fans of repeal will believe that to be true. It’s just amazing how things can be spun these days--and believed by so many.

Well since this thread has the Obamacare heading I’ll post my thoughts regarding it here.

There should be no worries about continuing the ACA. In July 2015 Donald Trump said he would replace it with “something terrific”. There you go!

And at his recent news conference he stated replacement would happen “very quickly”. Then added “We’re going to have a health care that is far less expensive and far better”. So there you go. Words uttered by PEEOTIS hisself.

It seems like the problem has been solved and there should be no worries. At the press conference he also stated: "I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to,” Piece of cake! Run the presidency and his business empire simultaneously, while riding a unicycle backwards on a tightrope suspended over a pride of hungry lions.

Only a man as gifted, wise, competent, and humble as Mr. Trump could pull off such a balancing act effortlessly. The man is simply no mere mortal.

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Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.